Husband and wife spent six hours in pool to survive California wildfires

A neighbor's blackened, debris-filled pool was the only refuge one couple had to escape the California wildfires.

Jan Pascoe, 65, and her husband John had tried to flee their Santa Rosa home early Monday morning but couldn't escape.

"It was a wall of fire," Jan told the Los Angeles Times. "We were in survival mode."

Knowing they had to make a decision quick, Jan said she and her husband ran to their neighbor's house because they had a pool.

As the couple stood on the pool's edge looking at their neighbor's home Jan said it suddenly went up in flames.

John, 70, stripped down to a t-shirt and jumped into the four-foot deep pool. Jan, wearing pajama bottoms and a tank top, quickly followed.

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"In my naiveté, all night long, I thought someone would come to get us," Jan told the outlet, saying before they fled their home she called 911 to tell the dispatcher where they would be.

No one came to rescue the couple. For the next six hours, Jan and John said they bobbed in and out of the water using t-shirts they had grabbed from their home to cover their faces from smoke and embers when they resurfaced.

"I just kept going under," she said. "It was the only way to survive. … And I kept saying, 'How long does it take for a house to burn down?' We were freezing."

When daylight came and the fire subsided, John told the Los Angeles Times he climbed out of the pool to survey the area.

Their home, along with their neighbors' houses, was gone. John and Jan said they were just grateful they made it out alive.

As of Friday, the California wildfires have killed at least 31 people and hundreds have been reported missing. The blazes have also destroyed more than 3,500 homes, businesses and other properties.

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